My Internet: Rawiya Kameir
The writer-professor engineered a better world on TikTok.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, by Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci.
Every week, we quiz a “very online” person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.
Today we welcome Rawiya Kameir, an assistant professor at Syracuse University, editor, and writer of essays, criticism, and profiles of music artists like Tierra Whack and Cardi B. Rawiya watches stationery unboxings and self-hypnosis tutorials on YouTube, expels the occasional intrusive thought on Instagram, and thinks the metaverse might be good for putting Mark Zuckerberg in a garbage can a la Immortal Technique and Lin Manuel Miranda. —Nick
EMBEDDED: What’s a recent meme or other post that made you laugh?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: The Queen’s death may have failed to inspire much insightful capital-d discourse but the meme production was undeniably top-tier. Even the basic ones had some value! This tweet comes to mind:
EMBEDDED: What types of videos do you watch on YouTube?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Silly game shows starring a revolving cast of black British YouTubers, stationery unboxings/reviews/flip-throughs, self-hypnosis tutorials, extreme chiropracty, tons of dog training. And music videos. I still love music videos.
EMBEDDED: Do you use TikTok? What shows up on your For You page?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: If I need a pick-me-up I’ll allow myself to scroll through TikTok until the first one of those “bestie, you’ve been on here a while, maybe it’s time to consider a break?” PSAs pops up. I’ve somehow engineered an algorithm that can accurately be characterized as extremely earnest: gardeners and herbalists, teachers who clearly (and reciprocally!) adore their students, stretching experts, study influencers, sage elderly women whose guiding philosophy is “dump your boyfriend!” My FYP is a better world than the one I live in.
EMBEDDED: What do you use Instagram for?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Not much these days. I tend to use it to share photos/videos of my dog and, on occasion, to impulsively expel an intrusive thought. I rarely scroll for more than a minute or so at a time, during which time I mostly just look at photos/videos of other people’s dogs.
EMBEDDED: Do you tweet? Why?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Do people tend to interpret this question as a roast? Because LMAO!!!!!! I used to tweet too much and I had fun doing it. But then I logged off for two years and upon my return I began posting with far less frequency and certainly with no particular purpose. I tend to check what’s trending a few times a day, though, and I’ve designated my friend Judnick as the primary recipient of texts that once would have been tweets.
EMBEDDED: Have you ever had a post go viral? What was that experience like?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Someone recently described themselves has having been a “victim” of going viral and I thought that was pretty apt (I apologize for having completely forgotten who deserves to be credited for that). While there’s some very temporary pleasure in the dopamine and validation that can come from a post doing small-scale numbers, going viral is generally terrible. Whether it’s a tweet or a piece of writing, the experience for me is full-on physical symptoms of anxiety. In most situations, online and offline, I feel very, “I’m a monster, don’t look at me!”
EMBEDDED: Who’s the coolest person who follows you?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Probably my friend’s little sister, who’s a junior at UCLA. Or any of my former students. It’s pretty flattering to get a follow from anyone born after the year 2000!
EMBEDDED: Who’s someone more people should follow?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Dr. Laura Kuan on Instagram. If you’re able to, please work on your spine health and joint mobility!
EMBEDDED: Which big celebrity has your favorite internet presence, and why?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: It is my sincerest belief that Drake uses the social web the way it’s supposed to be used: nonstop shenanigans and tomfoolery, very little performing of superior intelligence or morality.
EMBEDDED: Where do you tend to get your news?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I read the Times and watch or listen to Democracy Now most mornings, and I glance at various newsletters/alerts over the course of the day. But most things reach me by some kind of osmosis: Twitter, texts from friends, eavesdropping on the bus or at work.
EMBEDDED: What’s one positive trend you see in media right now? What’s one negative trend?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: A positive trend is the public’s engagement in the critique of media practices and the subsequent demands for transparency. A negative trend is the alarming extent to which some of that appears rooted in bad faith, or at least in uninterrogated confirmation bias.
EMBEDDED: What does “cancel culture” mean to you?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I think it’s just an expression of the corrupting power of charisma.
EMBEDDED: Do you subscribe to any Substacks or other independent newsletters? What are your favorites?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: My independent newsletter eyes are bigger than my independent newsletter stomach. As difficult as it is to admit, I subscribe to, and even pay for, way more Substacks than I open on a consistent basis. One that I’m always pleased to have read is Offerings by Jessica Dore, an extremely generous and insightful tarot reader/social worker/writer.
EMBEDDED: Are you into any podcasts right now? How and when do you usually listen?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: So many podcasts, all of which I listen to on a 1.3x speed and many of which I binge at what is probably an unhealthy clip. I recently loved Defector’s Normal Gossip. My most consistent podcast is Judge John Hodgman. I’ve listened since 2010 and I stilll think it’s perfect—so much so that lately I’ve been relistening to old episodes for comfort. There’s almost always a podcast playing in the background of my day and often in the background of my night. If I’m having a hard time falling asleep, my go-to is Nothing Much Happens, a podcast of bedtime stories for adults.
EMBEDDED: Are you nostalgic for Vine or Tumblr? Why?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I miss Vine every day. This is probably the nostalgia speaking but it just felt a lot less cynical, at least in the early days. It probably helped that we weren’t calling people “creators” back then.
EMBEDDED: Are you in any groups on Reddit, Slack, Discord, or Facebook? What’s the most useful or entertaining one?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I’m not an active member of any such groups but historically I’ve been a lurker on a lot of different corners of Reddit: skincare, indoor plants, dog training. By far the most useful has been a support group for people with a particular experience of long Covid that I’m now learning to live with.
EMBEDDED: Are you playing any games right now?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I don’t know if this counts but I play a lot of Sudoku and NYT Crossword.
EMBEDDED: What’s something you might want to do in the metaverse? What’s something you wouldn’t want to do?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Maybe put Mark Zuckerberg in a garbage can a la Immortal Technique and Lin Manuel Miranda. Other than that I want absolutely no parts of the metaverse.
EMBEDDED: What purpose do you see in NFTs?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: The sustained exploitation of the working classes but make it digital.
EMBEDDED: Do you think Web3 will mean a better internet?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I think Web3 has already meant a worse internet.
EMBEDDED: Do you text people voice notes? If not, how do you feel about getting them?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Yup. If I’m telling a story or if I’m processing something in the moment, my friends will get a voice note. A colleague of mine recently shared that when she grades her students’ work, she records her feedback for them in audio form. I think I’m gonna give that a try that in one of my classes this semester. I love receiving voice notes but long ones stress me out. I’d rather get a bunch of 25-second voice notes than a single 1-minute one.
EMBEDDED: Do any of your group chats have a name that you’re willing to share? What’s something that recently inspired debate in the chat?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: My best group chat is called Maxine and it’s just pictures and videos of my baby niece. There’s not much in there other than fawning but sometimes we’ll debate interpretations of her baby babble.
EMBEDDED: What’s your go-to emoji, and what does it mean to you?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I like the efficaciousness of this saluting guy but I aspire to this unrepentant demon 👹.
EMBEDDED: What’s a playlist, song, album, or style of music you’ve listened to a lot lately?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I run a collaborative playlist for one of my classes and this week I’ve been listening to all the songs my students have contributed so far. It goes in a bunch of different directions but it’s been a delightful transition into the new season. Someone added “thank u next” on there and it reminded me that it’s time to offer my gratitude to the summer and my open arms to the fall.
EMBEDDED: What’s your favorite non-social media app?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: Merlin, a very cool app developed and managed by Cornell’s ornithology lab. I use it almost every day to identify birds by their tweets or trills or songs.
EMBEDDED: What’s the most basic internet thing that you love?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: I always have time for animals being cute and kids being bad.
EMBEDDED: What’s the last thing that brought you joy online?
RAWIYA KAMEIR: My quarterly rewatch of Judge Tyco.
Thanks Rawiya! Read her writing and follow her on Twitter. 👹
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